In Bideford, Devon a disturbance broke out in a comprehensive school. The Daily Mirror and The Daily Telegraph both wrote a report on the story but their comments were quite different

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Introduction

"School Riots" newspaper comparison In Bideford, Devon a disturbance broke out in a comprehensive school. The Daily Mirror and The Daily Telegraph both wrote a report on the story but their comments were quite different. I will analyse both papers use of language and their effect on the reader will be compared along with how emotive the tabloid and the broadsheet are. The two headlines for each story immediately show you how different the two papers are. The headline in the Daily Mirror is very emotive. Using words such as "School Mob" may shock the reader because of their connotations. Schools are normally thought of as orderly places where trouble doesn't happen; this is why it seems strange to put the word with "mob". "Mob" suggests a gang of people who are out to terrorise and destruct. When you put "school" in front of "mob" it makes you think of teenagers shouting and protesting against teachers which is a stark contrast to normal school life. However the headline in The Daily Telegraph is far less emotive. "Pupils go on Rampage." "Pupils" is a much less emotive word compared to "Mob". "Pupils" suggests normal school children learning and abiding by school rules. ...read more.

Middle

This sounds much more dramatic compared to The Daily Telegraph that said "children were throwing bottles and stones". Using the word "children" makes the violence sound less damaging and less shocking. The Daily Telegraph also contains the fact that a report was called for the disturbance. The Daily Mirror doesn't include that as the report would probably be different to the story from The Daily Mirror and could make the reader think the paper is lying. In the two reports direct speech is used very little but is used effectively. The Daily Mirror doesn't include direct speech until the last sentence; it quotes "dealt with severely". This is referring to the pupils that caused the disturbance. The direct speech gives justice to the story and satisfies the reader as they know the pupils will be punished. The Daily Telegraph uses direct speech twice to good effect. The two quotes are "developing riot" and "a disturbance rather than a riot". The Daily Telegraph uses these two quotes as they make the report more factual but they also help the report move on. "Developing riot" makes the reader think that the situation is quite serious but in the next sentence it is changed to "a disturbance rather than a riot". ...read more.

Conclusion

The Daily Telegraph, however, uses much less emotive language when describing the police force. "Police stored order" is how The Daily Telegraph explains the police's input on the situation. "Stored order" gives the impression that when he police arrived at the school the disturbance was immediately stopped. When compared, "eight men strong" makes the story sound very serious, on the other hand "police stored order" is less shocking and sounds more like what you would expect if police were called to a school. After analysing both reports it is quite obvious that The Daily Mirror has set out to shock the reader and make them read the report in interest. Being a tabloid newspaper this is what you would expect but it is astonishing how much The Daily Mirrors report is different to The Daily Telegraphs. The Daily Telegraph is a broadsheet newspaper and their aim is to simply tell things how they happened. This has clearly happened in The Daily Telegraphs report about the disturbance as the information and language used is much less emotive than The Daily Mirrors. When reading The Daily Telegraphs report it feels like you are reading a professional report designed to give information. The Daily Mirrors report has a much more shocking and emotive feel to it much like a fictional story. ...read more.

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